A limited constitutional government calls for a rules-based, freemarket monetary system, not the topsy-turvy fiat dollar that now exists under central banking. This issue of the Cato Journal examines the case for alternatives to central banking and the reforms needed to move toward free-market money.

The more widespread use of body cameras will make it easier for the American public to better understand how police officers do their jobs and under what circumstances they feel that it is necessary to resort to deadly force.

Americans are finally enjoying an improving economy after years of recession and slow growth. The unemployment rate is dropping, the economy is expanding, and public confidence is rising. Surely our economic crisis is behind us. Or is it? In Going for Broke: Deficits, Debt, and the Entitlement Crisis, Cato scholar Michael D. Tanner examines the growing national debt and its dire implications for our future and explains why a looming financial meltdown may be far worse than anyone expects.

The Cato Institute has released its 2014 Annual Report, which documents a dynamic year of growth and productivity. “Libertarianism is not just a framework for utopia,” Cato’s David Boaz writes in his book, The Libertarian Mind. “It is the indispensable framework for the future.” And as the new report demonstrates, the Cato Institute, thanks largely to the generosity of our Sponsors, is leading the charge to apply this framework across the policy spectrum.

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Missouri Lawmakers Override Veto to Enact Good Samaritan Law

In January, Missouri legislators introduced the “Volunteer Health Services Act.” The bill expands health care access for low-income residents by eliminating the regulatory barriers Missouri previously imposed on out-of-state doctors and other clinicians who want to provide free charitable care to Missouri’s poor. Yes, every state government prevents some doctors from giving away free medical care to the poor. As I wrote in “50 Vetoes:”

Volunteer groups like Remote Area Medical engage doctors and other clinicians from around the country to treat indigent patients in rural and inner-city areas. States often prevent these clinicians from providing free medical care to the poor because, while they are licensed to practice medicine in their own states, they are not licensed to practice medicine where Remote Area Medical is holding its clinics.

Remote Area Medical has had to turn away patients or scrap clinics in California, Florida, and Georgia…After a tornado devastated Joplin, Missouri, Remote Area Medical arrived with a mobile eyeglass lab, yet state officials prohibited the visiting optometrists from giving away free glasses.

It appears that Missouri legislators, if not the governor, have learned their lesson. The legislature approved the Volunteer Health Services Act in May, and sent it to Gov. Jay Nixon (D), who vetoed it. But yesterday, both the Missouri House and Senate voted to override the governor’s veto. Missouri now joins states like Tennessee, Illinois, and Connecticut that have enacted similar Good Samaritan laws.

The Missouri law also shields clinicians from liability for simple negligence in malpractice actions. I’m not a really a fan of letting legislatures shield doctors from liability for their own negligence. In my view, doctors and patients should choose and adopt their own med-mal rules via contract. But this part of the law may have little effect. Missouri’s Volunteer Health Services Act still leaves clinicians liable for injuries resulting from gross negligence, and judges and juries may weaken this shield by stretching the definition of “gross” negligence.

Rather than enact massive and unaffordable new entitlement programs like ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, states should follow Missouri’s lead and eliminate this and other barriers that government puts in the way of getting health care to the poor.